Your transition meeting is when all the big
choices are placed on the table, the choices that are considered the critical
of support. I remember mine, it was my Medicaid Service Coordinator, my
parents, the head of Special Education Department, and the teachers. I have
never been one to go with the crowd. I
like to be the one to stand out. Why do something just because you are expected
to? Why not be the voice that changes
things to make things better instead of accepting them?
There
are things that we are forced to accept, there are things that we should never
accept and then there are things that you might have to meet in the middle to
move forward. Sometimes people may not
agree with you and what you think and what you are doing. They may have doubts and imagine something
different for you. But at the end of the day it is about what you want for
yourself, not about what others feel that is best for you. Your visions can
change, but your passion and drive of what keeps you motivated should never go
away.
The
things we do happen for a reason. There
are many forks in the road and sometimes we need to choose the road less
travelled and we might have to go down that road alone and pick the people that
will support us in the best possible way they know how to.
There
were two roads I could have gone down at this meeting. One road would have led me to go to a
vocational school and graduate with a certificate of completion get have a full
time job at the age of age 18 years old, but I shocked them all the staff and said
“No”! I don’t want that; I want to go
away to School to further my education! With
confusing looks on their faces, the Special Ed staff looked at my parents and
asked are you really going to support her with what she wants to do? Yes, we are my dad said. She wants to go away to collage we are going
to support her decision and she has the right to a full high school diploma instead
of just a certificate. The staff pointed
out that there were going to lots of bumps in the road and the likelihood of
someone with a disability to go on and be successful and live on their own was
going to be very and most likely not going to happen!
Yes,
some of that is true. However, if I had gone
down the road where everyone else had gone, I would be living closer to my
parents with limited mobility. It was at age 16 when I started making those
choices. Most of my classmates did not move away and live pretty close or with
their families. You have to make the choices that are best for you not because
everyone else is doing it or it is easier.
But some choices could be great for the short team, but what about the
long term and the future? Isn’t it important
to try and get as close to where you want to be as possible? Its because of all the decisions that I made that
I am where I am and not settling for where the people expect me to be.
I
still to this day get a lot of stereotypes.
I guess that’s what you get for battling the odds and never accepting
and listening to people who base things on what they have seen in the movies or
read in the books. There is a lot to be learned if you take the time to listen
to someone and get to know what their wants and dreams are. Then tell them they
can do anything that you put their mind to just never give up. There are things
that we might just do as a hobby where we will find our most success in. Success
is not measured by how much money you have or how big of a title you have, its
about doing the things that make you happy the most and the people that support
them.
